<p><LINK href="notes.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> <SPAN class="big"> Bodies On The Line -- FogCon 2012</span> <span class="dateline">01.04.2012 13.30h</span></p>
<ul class="taglist">
<li class="tags">
Bodies
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<li class="tags">
Risk
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<li class="tags">
Social Class
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<li class="tags">
Work
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</ul>
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<DIV class="intro">
Soldiers, sex workers, models, circus performers, dancers, athletes: all work in professions where the body in space is the primary instrument, place of value and risk. How is your life different when your body is your primary instrument? How does society value and mythologize the different modes of body work, and how do the practitioners see it? How do activities shape bodies and people's relationship to their body?
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<DIV class="panelists">
<ul>
<li>Eckhardt, Courtney</li>
<li>Liz Argall</li>
<li>Darrin Barnett</li>
<li>Elsa Hermens
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</li>
</ul>
<div class="notes">
<p>In some trades, there is a greater physical risk. In such cases, staying in shape is even more important.</p>
<p>Professional appearance can be very important for body workers, especially women.</p>
<p>Pro models must reside more in their bodies than in mind -- they must be aware both of their body's state and be able to ignore it.</p>
<p>Having a &quot;face for radio&quot;</p>
<p>Not just time, but body management. A person, after training, they move differently, their clothes hang differently, and people react differently.</p>
<p>Career management means that keeping in mind how the body will eventually not be able do something that it can do 'now' -- there's a 'shelf life' -- age, injury or the nature of the work can change. Worker must be aware of how long (how much time's left).</p>
<p>The &quot;Political Circus&quot; is a way to get out a political message telling a story with bodies -- it uses the tools of &quot;family circuses.&quot; Political circus are in fixed locations. They do e.g., outreach to kids at risk.</p>
<p>The circus can be a way of finding artistic voice, and how one can make it one's own.</p>
<p>One's looks can be a part of the job. So, at what point to you no longer own your own body?</p>
<p>The issue of using bodies in work is charged, especially for females.</p>
<p>Stories are often about how females inhabit their bodies.</p>
<p>You don't see bodies expiring in fiction, getting old so much.</p>
<p>If you no longer can do something you needed or depended on, it can be devastating.</p>
<p>It is easier to just describe injuries over describing ageing or degeneration.</p>
<p>People often opt to use prostheses.</p>
<p>The line between doing something by coice and not is a fine one.</p>
<p>Body workers need time to ramp up and ramp down. They can't just switch things off.</p>
<p>&quot;Our lives are full of oughts&quot;</p>
<p>Being violated is a suddent loss v. slow loss (e.g., in RSI).</p>
<p>Soldiers and sex workers have some commonalities (e.g, PTSD, violence).</p>
<p>There's a lot more variety in the depiction of female prostitutes than of male ones.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.scarletalliance.org.au/">Scarlet Alliance</a> wants an <em>appropriate</em> amount regulation of the industry.</p>
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